Diet and exercise are intertwined, no matter how much I would like it to be otherwise. But far too many young men worry about every calorie they eat and don't pay attention to their routine. Go eat something, go squat, see what happens.

I'm definitely not disagreeing with you, there's a whole lot of truth in yours and every post in this thread actually. My post was just a commentary on the answers; in that a lot of it will depend on your own individual goals, history and situation. Like anything in life your views on stuff will come from your own experiences and situations.

For me, diet has to play a big part. It's tied in to what I do, for my own particular goals it has to be. Later on, as my goals change I imagine it won't be to the same extent. On that note my training is very important now, but I've eased up on that a lot. There was a time when my training was much more important to me than it is now. So priorities will vary.

EDIT -

Having thought about it a little more, perhaps a topic for an article could be how actions do not match with goals. For example an over emphasis on routines, isolation exercises, obsessing over sets/reps, rep cadence etc etc can be counter productive for a young trainee who needs to gain weight. In that case their actions are that of perhaps a pro-bodybuilder looking to get into shape, their goals are of a young trainee who needs to gain bulk. That contradiction is what will mess them up.